It was Isa who got the waitress talking, by telling her that she and her cousin - indicating Milly - had mothers who were sisters and their maiden name had been MacFarlane, and they often spoke of relatives who had gone 'over the water' and settled in Nova Scotia and they had promised their mothers to see if they could track any down; the waitress, a comely red-head, laughed and said: "ye'll find nae shortage o MacFarlanes ower here, honey, in fact ah cood probbly name three or fower folk ah ken o wha urny MacFarlanes, but they're aw merrit ontae MacFarlanes, lemme write doon yer maws' names and whaur they cumfae an Ah'll ask Jinty in the kitchen if she kens emdy wha micht be able tae help ye'se!" and, prepared for these sort of questions, Isa and Milly gave likely-sounding names and birthplaces for the fictitious mothers and the lass bustled away to confer with the knowledgeable Jinty; meanwhile the Transatlantic Famous Five ran over their back-story for their imminent arrival at the MacFarlane Castle Hotel; a few minutes later, Jinty herself, wearing chef's whites arrives at the table and pulled up a chair for herself: "Ah'm Jinty MacFarlane, pleased tae meet ye'se aw," and shook hands with each in turn, keeping hold of Hyman's for a few heartbeats too long, long enough to observe that he wasn't wearing a wedding ring and he was expensively dressed, certainly in comparison with the local menfolk, obviously a City Slicker, but she had no prejudice against single City Slickers, and when she said: "Ah ken there's entertainment laid on at the Castle, but ye ken thae things kin be a bit o a menagerie, rehearsed an laid oan fur tourists, na that Ah've owt against tourists, they're oor breed n bu'urr," and she laughed at her own joke, "but if ye want tae see real life Ah'd be happy tae tak ye tae some places aff the Tourist Trail, if ye ken whit a mean," and in addition to directing her remarks principally to Hyman, she actually gave him a blatant wink and, weak gobemouche that he was, he winked back and nodded: "well, Jinty, I for one would be delighted to take you up on that, I much prefer what they call Local Colour than the Package Tour stuff, and I'm sure the girls would be glad to have a break from me," and he looked around for confirmation, while Jinty said: "weel, there's a wee dance the nicht in St Columb's Kirk Ha' if ye'd fancy that, it'll jist be locals fae the Glen, we dinna get fowk fae the Castle, it's a wee workin village wi nae ancient ruins – except fer Black Boab, he's muncle an he's aboot ninety-three or fower, naebdy's quite sure, but Ah think he stoaped keepin coont a few year back, he still has a wee croft jist like the yins his great-great-grandparents wis brung up oan, apart fae his age he's goat a braw memory and he'll kin likely tell ye mair aboot the Aulden Days than me, the Gaelic's his first tongue and he's a rare singer, oh an iffen ye like Local Colour, we lassies kin still dae the Mooth Music," then she gave a long ululation that seemed to give Hyman a tingle down the back-bone and said she'd meet Him at the Castle gates at 7pm and take him in her own car, as she knew the roads and she wouldn't want him to scrape his own on any of the tight rocky bends; they shook hands on it and she returned to the kitchen while the four girls stared at Hyman and Sadie said: "you've only been here five minutes and you got picked up, it certainly constitutes an événement and in my book I'd say it takes the Matzo!" –

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